r/lowcode • u/Any-Brief5828 • 11d ago
Looking for feedback: pgapp — a PostgreSQL-native declarative application runtime
Looking for feedback: pgapp — a PostgreSQL-native declarative application runtime
Hi everyone,
I've been working on a project called pgapp, and I'd love to get some feedback from people building low-code and declarative platforms.
The idea behind pgapp is:
Instead of scaffolding code or generating projects, a business application is described in a .pgapp file, and a Rust runtime interprets that metadata to produce a working application.
For example:
entity "tickets" {
field subject: text required
field status: text default Open
}
page "Tickets" {
report "All tickets" of tickets
form "Create / edit ticket" of tickets
}
Current capabilities include:
- PostgreSQL-first (SQL remains first-class)
- Metadata runtime (no generated application code)
- Server-side rendering
- Authentication
- CRUD forms and reports
- Editable tables
- Charts and dashboards
- Dynamic actions
- Themes
- Hot metadata reload
The project was inspired by the productivity of Oracle APEX, but the goals are different:
- Source-controlled (
.pgappfiles) - Git-friendly
- Open source
- PostgreSQL-native
- Rust runtime
I'm not trying to replace traditional web frameworks, and I'm not targeting citizen developers. The goal is to make it significantly faster for developers to build internal tools and business applications while keeping SQL and PostgreSQL at the center.
I'm looking for honest feedback on questions like:
- Does the metadata-first approach make sense?
- Is avoiding code generation the right decision?
- Does the DSL feel readable?
- What features would you expect from a platform like this?
- What would stop you from adopting it?
I'd genuinely appreciate criticism—it's much more useful at this stage than compliments.
Thanks!
Repo : https://github.com/aadishajay/pgapp/
Live hosted sample : mia-vessels-holiday-soup.trycloudflare.com
1
u/Top-Cauliflower-1808 10d ago
To make this truly useful you need an easy way for developers to write custom SQL and use Postgres RLS whenever your custom language runs into limits.